Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 30 March 2021

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach

Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised)

Photo of Pearse DohertyPearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I know. If we look at the outturn in the context of what was projected when we dealt with the Estimates, as we are supposed to do, we can see that this has not been good in recent years. Four major schemes were supposed to be delivered in 2019, but only two were delivered. The following year five schemes were promised, but only one was delivered. If one looks at the number of major flood relief schemes, in 2019 six were supposed to be delivered but only two were delivered. The following year, four major flood relief schemes were promised but only one was delivered. On flood embankments, 132 km were promised in 2019 but only 95 km were delivered. We have targets before us which are bigger than any other year but if the same trend is followed, the OPW will deliver about a quarter of what the targets are.

That takes me to the following point. If we look at what the OPW has been asking for in terms of capital expenditure, we can see that for 2021 the capital allocation for flood risk management is €88 million and that for 2020 it was also €88 million. In 2019, Maurice Buckley, the chairperson of the OPW, wrote to the then Secretary General of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Robert Watt, and provided a submission for the ten-year investment programme. Mr. Buckley clearly outlined that the OPW's needs were that €103 million, €112 million and €114 million were required in 2019, 2020 and 2021, respectively.

That was not to do super jobs but to continue to provide existing services and implement the flood protection schemes in 30 areas of the CFRAM proposal. When the Government announced its capital plan, it did not deliver on those figures but on €80 million, €90 million and €100 million over a three-year period, from 2018 to 2020, inclusive; what was delivered on the ground was worse than that, at €73 million, €88 million and €88 million.

We can talk about the projects, Cork and Donegal and all the rest but unless the pot of money is allocated to those, there are problems. Donegal town goes into phase 2 and others. Over and over again, the OPW says that it needs much more money than what is being delivered. Even what is being ring-fenced in the capital plan is not being delivered by the OPW on the ground.

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